VICTORY 21-0 (vs Sebastian)

From the minute I arrived at the Citrus Bowl, I knew it was going to be a long night.  The wind was starting to pick up, and the heavy black storm clouds were rolling in.  Then our Thor-Guard (lightning meter) went off and the deluge was about to begin.  Here comes the rain.....and lots of it.  I had just set up all of our Hudl Equipment (Instant replay) and that stuff does not like to get wet.  I moved the equipment and placed it under a new Dyer Chevrolet Silverado parked in the endzone.  Hopefully, we could wait this storm out and get back to business.  Surprisingly, the lightning moved out of the area, so we were cleared to go back to the field...but the rain had other ideas.

Obviously the game was a sloppy mess.  It poured and poured rain the entire game. Naturally, we had issues throwing the wet slick ball, so we had to alter the game plan a bit.  Bryan had a good game on the ground gaining 140 yards or so.  Our QB Nick Celidonio still managed to hook up with Dee Harris (A University of Kentucky commit) for a endzone touchdown, and we ran for two more.  The defense shut Sebastian River down and did not allow them to score.

VBHS finished the season 10-0 and ranked #1 in 8A.  We are heading to the playoffs next week.  Sebastian River had nothing to play for except knocking off the #1 team in the area.  As expected, things got a little chippy on the field.  In Florida, if a player gets thrown out of a game by an official, he cannot play for the next six games.  In our case, that could possibly mean not playing the entire playoff season.  That could be devastating to our team.  We spent much of the game trying to control the situation and keep our kids from retaliating.  We have so much football ahead of us, so that would be stupid.  All and all it was a wet,sloppy win....but we got out of the game healthy and victorious despite the distractions.

On Sunday, the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) will announce the playoff pairing brackets for the entire state.  In Florida, each team is ranked according to your strength of schedule.  The winners of each district are automatically given a playoff spot (1-4).   Then, the teams with the most points are ranked accordingly (5-6-7-8).  We play in the 8A North Region.  This same thing is happening in several regions across the state in all classifications.  So, teams ranked #1 should play a #8 ranked team and so forth (1 vs 8) (2 vs 7) (3 vs 6) (4 vs 5)  It is important we keep the #1 ranking (in all of Florida) to insure home field advantage the entire playoff series.  Sounds confusing doesn't it?  It is, but its our system and we have to deal with it.  Consequently, it has assured that each team making the playoffs deserves to be there, and there are no weak teams competing anymore.  Each playoff team starts on (0-0), so we have to be on our game every week from now on.  Lose one and your done.

GZ